Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Here in America we are still trying to come to grips with how one of our own could be so evil. Adam Lanza was not some "crazed" Arab terrorist or one of those young threatening urban males we associate with violence and depravity. He lived in a 4,000 square foot suburban home in a neighborhood that most Americans could only dream of living in. And yet, he was the manifestation of evil.

So what does this say about us? That, as James Dobson suggests, we need God? Or have we just become a society that celebrates madness and mayhem? And, if this is the case, is this really something new? (Let's not forget how this country was built)Would God really approve of all these guns and the way we celebrate and embrace them?

I read a great essay by Garry Wills, and I would like to share some of it. (h/t to Greg Fuller)

"Few crimes are more harshly forbidden in the Old Testament than sacrifice to the god Moloch (for which see Leviticus 18.21, 20.1-5). The sacrifice referred to was of living children consumed in the fires of offering to Moloch. Ever since then, worship of Moloch has been the sign of a deeply degraded culture. Ancient Romans justified the destruction of Carthage by noting that children were sacrificed to Moloch there. Milton represented Moloch as the first pagan god who joined Satan’s war on humankind:

First Moloch, horrid king, besmear’d with blood Of human sacrifice, and parents’ tears, Though for the noise of Drums and Timbrels loud Their children’s cries unheard, that pass’d through fire To his grim idol. (Paradise Lost 1.392-96)

Read again those lines, with recent images seared into our brains—“besmeared with blood” and “parents’ tears.” They give the real meaning of what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School Friday morning. That horror cannot be blamed just on one unhinged person. It was the sacrifice we as a culture made, and continually make, to our demonic god. We guarantee that crazed man after crazed man will have a flood of killing power readily supplied him. We have to make that offering, out of devotion to our Moloch, our god. The gun is our Moloch. We sacrifice children to him daily—sometimes, as at Sandy Hook, by directly throwing them into the fire-hose of bullets from our protected private killing machines, sometimes by blighting our children’s lives by the death of a parent, a schoolmate, a teacher, a protector. Sometimes this is done by mass killings (eight this year), sometimes by private offerings to the god (thousands this year).The gun is not a mere tool, a bit of technology, a political issue, a point of debate. It is an object of reverence. Devotion to it precludes interruption with the sacrifices it entails. Like most gods, it does what it will, and cannot be questioned. Its acolytes think it is capable only of good things. It guarantees life and safety and freedom. It even guarantees law. Law grows from it. Then how can law question it? Its power to do good is matched by its incapacity to do anything wrong. It cannot kill. Thwarting the god is what kills. If it seems to kill, that is only because the god’s bottomless appetite for death has not been adequately fed. The answer to problems caused by guns is more guns, millions of guns, guns everywhere, carried openly, carried secretly, in bars, in churches, in offices, in government buildings. Only the lack of guns can be a curse, not their beneficent omnipresence.Adoration of Moloch permeates the country, imposing a hushed silence as he works his will. One cannot question his rites, even as the blood is gushing through the idol’s teeth. The White House spokesman invokes the silence of traditional in religious ceremony. “It is not the time” to question Moloch. No time is right for showing disrespect for Moloch. The fact that the gun is a reverenced god can be seen in its manifold and apparently resistless powers. How do we worship it? Let us count the ways:

1. It has the power to destroy the reasoning process. It forbids making logical connections. We are required to deny that there is any connection between the fact that we have the greatest number of guns in private hands and the greatest number of deaths from them. Denial on this scale always comes from or is protected by religious fundamentalism. Thus do we deny global warming, or evolution, or biblical errancy. Reason is helpless before such abject faith....

It has the power to distort our constitutional thinking. It says that the right to “bear arms,” a military term, gives anyone, anywhere in our country, the power to mow down civilians with military weapons. Even the Supreme Court has been cowed, reversing its own long history of recognizing that the Second Amendment applied to militias. Now the court feels bound to guarantee that any every madman can indulge his “religion” of slaughter. Moloch brooks no dissent, even from the highest court in the land.Though LaPierre is the pope of this religion, its most successful Peter the Hermit, preaching the crusade for Moloch, was Charlton Heston, a symbol of the Americanism of loving guns. I have often thought that we should raise a statue of Heston at each of the many sites of multiple murders around our land. We would soon have armies of statues, whole droves of Heston acolytes standing sentry at the shrines of Moloch dotting the landscape. Molochism is the one religion that can never be separated from the state. The state itself bows down to Moloch, and protects the sacrifices made to him. So let us celebrate the falling bodies and rising statues as a demonstration of our fealty, our bondage, to the great god Gun." [Source]

So Americans know but one "god". And I have some bad news for Pastor Dobson; it isn't the one he is worshiping.

41 comments:

"So Americans know but one "god". And I have some bad news for Pastor Dobson; it isn't the one he is worshiping."

If you believe the author you so praised in your post, I suppose Dobson has it all wrong.

Field, haven't you realized that humans--all humans--are swimming in a sea of ignorance?

In addition to that our hearts are rooted in the seven deadly sins?

Do you remember those 7 deadly sins? When unchecked, they create havoc, chaos, and untold horrible things.

Give a little thought to the 10 Commandments that have been removed from the tablets of our hearts in schools by so-called 'reasonable, logical' minds. What is to stop lthe human heart to do atrocious things when it is left only with the deadly sins to operate on?

Mr Field, do you think that God has existed since the beginning of human existence out of dreams or ignorance? If that is true, then science exists for the same reason.

Einstein once said, "Without religion, science is lame; without science, religion is blind."

You have made it clear that you do not believe in God, religion or the church. What do you believe in...'nothing'? You are a very arrogant, yet very pessimistic person, Mr Field.

"Leftism" is simply a political ideology. The "Moloch", for the wingnut, IS "God".

Yes - just an ideology from a godless man who presumes to tell others what he just knows they believe in, with him having no beliefs but leftism and his worshiping the cult of personality. Or if beliefs ever existing, trading them in for worship of that ideology.

The irony. Do you ever pause, self reflect even the tiniest bit?

Leftism is a religion, you simply feel outside of the norm and therefore need to change no matter the goodness or destructiveness involved.

The naive scholar who searches for a consistent Leftist program will not find it. What there is consists only in the negation of the present. Never a positive, never a workable solution, simply the negation of the present as they are eternally unhappy and certain that the world is the reason for their unhappiness and any shortcomings there may be.

Were this untrue, why surely you would use empirical evidence instead of fallacious religious arguments to frame your views. But of course that is leftism, disparage those who believe you aren't the pinnacle of existence, whilst pushing forward repeatedly failed agendas.

Years ago according to lore, there were many who decried the use of fire as too dangerous a tool. They demanded it be banished because of the incompetent, those who no matter how many times they burned themselves, kept burning their fingers.

Guns are nothing more than tools, like fire. Leftists however surround a hut with flammable dangerous material, pour gasoline all around and then say look..fire is too dangerous for normal man, we need government to control it. As if the below average intelligence of our politicians will handle it better.

Conservatives don't see any tool as a "GOD" however in your religious zealotry you are the one making that equation when you see refusal to accept your ridiculous beliefs as explainable only by someone else having a religion. Did you ever think that you are just completely wrong and again empirical evidence shows that with extreme clarity? If so then who is the religious Zealot?

It is understandable, normal advanced humans using every day tools and accomplishing something without hurting anyone or having government do it or destroying something that has been a flagship for the world, must seem God-like to a leftist.

The massively powerful NRA, acolyteand high priest of Moloch, has scheduled a press conference for Friday.

I can hardly wait.

—anotherbozo

No actually your Moloch has already spoken, he will try and pass more laws that will do nothing to those who already disobey the laws. But he is sure this time, it will work. I mean after all looking at the insane, the criminals and the like would require individuals be held accountable and for those who are afraid of accountability that would be discrimination. Enter the ACLU.

Discrimination against the anti-social, violent, evil, remorseless and insane is just what is needed. We need to return to looking for trends and identify those who do evil things regularly.

To understand the left's position on nearly any issue, imagine a 20th Century American and then take away accountability. Assume that the individual is helpless and stupid, has little to no control over his own behavior and is only responding to stimuli and functions in a purely reactive capacity. Then use that data to come up with a response to anything from kids getting fat to a football player shooting his wife to terrorists firing rockets at Israel. The only possible answer to reactive behavior is to find the thing being reacted to and condemn it.

If you want to fake being a member of the left on any topic and in any setting, master this simple phrase. "But we have to look at the root causes to see who is really responsible." Congratulations, you can now get by anywhere from Caracas to Brussels to Berkeley.

The root cause is a perpetual search for an accountability vested in systems rather than people. That search always ends up with systems and ideologies, rather than mere people, because it justifies the destruction of those systems and ideologies. And destroying systems and ideologies allows them to be replaced by their progressive replacements.

The final failure of accountability for the left is a failure of moral organization, while for the right it is a failure of personal character. The right asks, "Why did you kill?" The left asks, "Who let him have a gun?", "Who didn't provide him with a job" and "Who neglected his self-esteem?"

Choice is what makes us moral creatures and collective compassion leaves us less than human. The collective society of mass movements and mass decisions leaves us little better than lab monkeys trying to compose Shakespeare without understanding language, meaning or ideas, or anything more than the rote feel of our fingers hitting the keyboard.

This is the society that the left is creating, a place filled with as many social problems as there are people, where everyone is a lab monkey except the experts running the experiments, and where no one has any rights because freedom is the enemy of a system whose moral code derives from creating a perfect society by replacing the individual with the mass. It is a society where there is no accountability, only constant compulsion. It is a society where you are a social problem and there are highly paid experts working day and night to figure out how to solve you.

Interesting article. This is made more profound by the fact that many religious conservatives duly worship Moloch. On one conservative site I asked WWJD when it came to guns and an "Apostle" and an actual Bishop scolded me and gave me stories of warrior Jesus. Dude even twisted the story of Peter cutting off the ear of a Roman soldier as Yeshua condoning violence. They are some sick and twistwd people. Ted Rall also wrote a good article indicting the whole culture for our acceptance of violence.

"Leftism" is simply a political ideology. The "Moloch", for the wingnut, IS "God".

Field - you are practicing communism/socialism. And I do hope you know history and how that worked out. Not just once but in each and every single time it was tried in history in any climate with many variables.

The basis of communist ideology was that society was built on a class system of the rich and poor (or the employers and workers). Communists claimed the capitalists suppressed the workers by keeping them in a “no-win” situation. History, Marx said, was based on a series of clashes between the classes, and religion was nothing more than an “opium” to suppress the masses and keep them in their place.

What is some key linked verbiage? Obama/Class Warfare/Greedy corporations/tax the rich/religious zealots - all taking place today and being promoted by leftists.

----

Marx's vision was a worldwide class revolution to crush the class system and put everyone on equal footing with equal chances. He wanted to see everyone as the worker and eliminate the upper class. The goal would be to crush existing classes, traditions, and definitely, religions.

My if this isn't todays Obama/Leftist it's eerily close.

What did Marx say? Life is material and there is no God. The current state of law, moral values, and religion is a “bourgeois” (or upper class) concept designed to keep the wealthy rich while the poor stay poor.

Religion is used for nothing more than spiritual subjugation, while the government is used for economic exploitation.

How many millions died of starvation from these beliefs? Why? How many were enslaved, killed, slain and destroyed in the name of these beliefs? Why? Why didn't they work? What makes you think they will work now, despite already seeing them destroying America?

What is the difference between todays leftist and Communism? Not much - little daylight in ideologies, however a major roadblock is 200 million guns and those who refuse to bow to your "religion" and worship leftism destroying the individualism of Americans.

The pathetic little man the American people have seen fit to elect President twice just wrapped up a press conference. The purpose of the event was to announce Joe Biden will head up a task force on what steps should be taken in the wake of the Newtown massacre. Most of the questions however focused on the "fiscal cliff".

Obama then when went where no decent human being would. He tied his tax proposals to the deaths of 20 innocent children:

It is a deal that can get done, but it is not going to be -- it cannot be done if every side wants 100 percent. And part of what voters were looking for is some compromise up here. That’s what -- that’s what folks want.

They understand that they’re not going to get 100 percent of what they want. And for some reason, that message has not yet taken up on Capitol Hill. And when you think about what we’ve gone through over the last couple of months -- a devastating hurricane, and now one of the worst tragedies in our memory, the country deserves folks to be willing to compromise on behalf of the greater good and not tangle themselves up in a whole bunch of ideological positions that don’t make much sense.

Obama is forever pretending to be Mr. Middle of the Road, the one person willing to put his ideology aside. It's always the evil Republicans who bitterly cling to their positions. Why Republicans are so mean that not even 20 dead children will change their mind about tax rates, entitlement reform and deficit reduction.

you are a commie lair field.when i wa s in school 50yrs ago we did not have crazies shooting up our schools because one teacher had a gun.when the communist teachers union infected education they got rid of the armed teacher with predictable results.then ted,the swimmer,freed the crazies and main streamed them so that every now and then they go nuts,shooting us up.so the fault is yours field along with the rest of the national socialist democratic workers party.lets do some gun grabbing because it has worked so well in chicago and philly.

"That's quite an accomplishment, right up there with his Nobel Peace Prize."

Think about what you just wrote, wingnut.

Think about what YOU just defended, I know you aren't stupid so did you pause at all to think how you will lose credibility when all remember how Obama got that prize and when and for doing what exactly? Or that Europe just won the very same prize, causing every journalist including all the lefties to laugh out loud at the ridiculousness?

Yes,The "Nobel Peace Prize"is a pretty big deal. Or rather, it used to be. Now it is a joke. That happens when you don't have any values and lower or eliminate standards.

I mean to give Obama the Nobel peace prize when he just got into office and hadn't done a thing yet was farcical, they could have at least waited until he sent troops to several nations, found out he insist on approving who gets killed by drones and continued the wars in Afghanistan and Irag. I mean it's not like he just sent troops to turkey and ran guns through Egypt for Syrians causing Benghazi.

Field - if you want to be an effective misleader for the left you are going to have to pick more wisely in the nonsense you defend.

Hey Field, I think I saw one of your anons in Vegas. He had a bullhorn warning us we're all going to hell and reading from his book of fairy tales, just like it does here.

Translation - I am too stupid to understand the parables of human conscience and behavior and saw a sentence with the word God in it so the person using an analogy must be religious, therefore lacking the ability to understand and interpret anything more than basic thoughts I will parrot someone mocking someone else I heard once in a childlike sarcastic manner as I only can. Simply because I have nothing else worthwhile to contribute with my limited intelligence.

Interesting article. This is made more profound by the fact that many religious conservatives duly worship Moloch. On one conservative site I asked WWJD when it came to guns and an "Apostle" and an actual Bishop scolded me and gave me stories of warrior Jesus. Dude even twisted the story of Peter cutting off the ear of a Roman soldier as Yeshua condoning violence. They are some sick and twistwd people. Ted Rall also wrote a good article indicting the whole culture for our acceptance of violence.

What a ridiculous thing you are. One idiot finding another and then trying to use that as proof of his very own idiocy. It worked, I believe you are an idiot.

What does this asinine gibberish question mean anyway?

"I asked WWJD when it came to guns and an "Apostle" "

Jesus was facing spears and swords, just like your peers in other countries use today, spears anyway they never found metallurgy.

When what exactly came to guns and an Apostle? Are you trying to say if an Apostle carried guns?

You aren't Apostle material so what in the world is your stunted mind trying to process?

Anyway, you should be ashamed of your cultural acceptance of violence and coverups in the forms of excuses, your culture is appalling.

It's YOUR fault you could live a lifetime and NEVER amount to $hit. So don't hate an academic scholar who has earned degrees in EVERY decade of her life. Hate your stupid a$$ parents for producing such a pansy a$$ career-less jerk of a Beelzebub, LOL!!!

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